| Establishing the Rules |

XXX Chase

I turned away from the tan blonde on the bench, not really interested in what he had to say. I started to walk away when I bumped into someone, He was a little shorter than me, his skin was a dark creamy brown, and his hair was black and cut to the scalp. He looked up at me with a smirk, and I immediately categorized him as a sarcastic person. He was wearing the same baggy jeans and T-shirt as everyone else, with black tenni-shoes. He casually stood next to me "This is the big man we are supposed to listen to?" He said with amusement, as he surveyed the tan blonde on the bench. Uh ya, I have decided to call him tan blonde until I know his real name.

"I guess. Although I think it is a terrible idea." I said. "I'm Chase," I say, as we walk towards the large group.

"The name's Axel" he then held out his hand and I grin at him as I shake his hand. At least I have a friend who's not a total idiot, I thought to myself.

"Nice to meet you. Now let's see what this guy has to say."

XXX Vannessa

Well, today has been a very rough day, I thought. Woke up with a split headed headache, that wasn't fun. Oh, also I don't remember anything except my name, Vanessa, and that is why, starting now, I am not a morning person.

There were at least ten of us. All of them around the age of thirteen through sixteen, I think I'm roughly around 16. Now I am regretting that I even commented that I was probably the oldest, Since everyone is now looking at me like what's next? We were abandoned in an old parking garage, and it was practically crumbling before my eyes. I walked outside to see a ruined city, deserted, and unstable. Every half an hour or so, we would hear cement breaking and building falling in a heap. I turn around to the kids who are looking at me expectantly.

"So I guess that I am supposed to lead this group. Since I'm the oldest." I never wanted to lead this group but I guess I have no choice. "Listen up! This is what we are going to do! We need to stay together cause god forbid if you get lost I'm not going after you, period." That was true. It's not like I was lying. We already have a lot of trouble ahead of us, my mind just keeps repeating, survive The Phases, whatever that means. "We need to gather food and get to somewhere where we can camp permanently." I felt like a drill Sergeant commanding their army. It was kinda fun but stressful since I'm the one responsible for my group.

"Where the heck are we gonna find food?" A curly redhead yelled. "This place was left to waste! How are we going to survive in this dump?"

"I don't know. It's not like I have a master plan. We just need to scavenge the stores. Some food has to be here. It's not like it would just disappear." I explain a little annoyed with the redhead. We don't need a negative whining toddler in this group. "Okay! So let's go search the stores." The teens didn't look that excited to go exploring the ruins of this city but I yelled at them to start moving anyways. I have a feeling that there are more people in this place than just us.

XXX Axel

Most of the time all I heard from the guy on the bench was "blah, blah, blah, and blah." You know the usual stuff, like, "We don't have to have rules, we can be free, and do what we want!" Oh my, what a perfect idea! Let's just let younger kids, who are even more immature than us, go run free! Then they will die! But at least they were free! That sounds wonderful! I start walking towards the bench.

"Axel?" Chase whispers loudly, as I jump on the bench and knock off the blond. Everyone was close to laughing when the blond fell off the bench, face first in dirt.

"Hello!" People look at me, still amused at the blond, who is still sprawled on the ground from when I shoved him off. "Okay! Listen up! We need rules. Why? Because without them there is no order." I give everyone a (I dare you to disagree with me) look. Chase just stared at me with his bushy eyebrows raised, I wave him off and continue. "The Blond over there is an idiot." Pointing to the boy, who looks livid I swear I see smoke coming out of his ears. "He said we should just basically look after ourselves! Ha! That's funny! Do you think that younger kids are going to survive The Phases? If it is as bad as it seems, then I say we should stick together! Lay down some rules. Does everyone agree?"

There were mumbled agreements, and I looked approvingly of the group. We had at least 30 people in our group, half girls half boys I could tell if we left these kids unchecked and panicked it would cause havoc. There were about 10 people that probably called themselves rebels that seemed to take the blond's side. Well, if the "rebels" don't wanna follow the rules they don't have to.

"Starting with the rules, there will be no killing if you murder you will be exiled. If it is an accident and you accidentally killed someone, I'm not gonna be the one burying the body. Got it?" Everyone looked around murmuring agreements. "These are fair right?" Everyone nodded. "If you steal give them their stuff back, and I guess I can figure out a punishment later." It felt good to have some of the situation under control. "Okay, the first thing we need to do is, scavenge. We need to find food and water. Anyone who is not going to follow our rules may leave, I can not guarantee that you will be welcomed back into the group when your group of havoc starts to die off. Those who will be leaving may leave now."

About ten left the crowd of teens, I was not surprised the tan blond was among them. "My group and I will be living in the park, so find somewhere else. I don't want dead weight on my group." The group of departing teens scowled at me but left. I could tell they would be back. Blonde whose name is actually Nick glared at me murderously and I stared just as much back. Once they were out of sight, I grinned "Okay! Let's get started!" Everyone then gathered around me as I separated them into different scavenger groups. This might turn out better than I expected. Chase and I looked at each other. We both knew immediately that we would lead this group together.